Clostridium perfringens is an important pathogen in human and veterinary medicine. In swine, the agent is responsible for necrotic enteritis and enterotoxemia characterized by diarrhea, weight loss, delayed development and, in some cases, death. In the present study amplified fragment length polymorphism analyses (AFLP) was used to characterize 54 C. perfringens strains isolated from swine presenting diarrhea. Analysis of the results showed 29 distinct profiles with discriminatory index equal to 0.97. Partial correlation between the origin of the isolates and groups was drawn, and correlation was possible in only 18.5% of the samples. Characterization of the strains in biotypes (A, B, C, D and E), production of beta-2 toxin and enterotoxin were performed by means of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Biotypes A, C and D were observed among the strains analyzed. All samples were positive for presence of the gene encoding beta-2 toxin and negative for the gene encoding enterotoxin. AFLP have shown to be a simple, fast, low cost method with high discriminative power and good reproducibility, presenting a great potential in epidemiological studies involving C. perfringens strains of animal origin.
AFLP; diarrhea; piglets; Clostridium perfringens
